01. Darkness Our Bride (Jugular Wedding)02. The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh03. The Forest Whispers My Name04. Iscariot05. The Black Goddess Rises06. One Final Graven Kiss07. A Crescendo Of Passion Bleeding08. To Eve The Art Of Witchcraft09. Of Mist And Midnight Skies10. In Secret Love We Drown11. A Dream Of Wolves In The Snow12. Summer Dying Fast13. Imperium Tenebrarum

Everyone knows about the great Cradle of Filth, yet many don't like them. Don't know why. Some can't stand their vocalist, Dani Filth, and others have only heard the recent, commercialized albums (Nymphetamine, and that abomination Thornography). Anyway, I am not here to discuss that. Personaly, they are my all-time favourite band, and this album is a show of Dani Filth's musical mastermind!

This is definitly their most "hardcore" album, and I would agree with the "Symphonic Black Metal" category. This album has everthing from hard, black metal riffs and horrifying vocals to great symphonic instruments, perfect guitar solos and soft female voclas. Don't think that all of that was just thrown in there, no, everything fits in more than perfectly (for a full example of what I am talking about, listen to the song "To Eve the Art of Witchcraft"). The drumming is.... well it's... I can't find a good enough word for how freakin' amaizing it is! All of this creates one hell of a dark and aggresive atmosphere. Dani's vocals are quite unusual compared to all of other Cradle of Filth's albums. About 70% of them are mid-pitched growls, and while there are still some high-shrieked screams common to the other albums, it sort of bugs me because I'm much more used to Dani's characteristical screaming. But, that's a matter of taste.

Unfortunately, even this masterpiece has some flaws. First off, it's the production, the deffinite weakspot of this album. This makes the sound sort of quiet, like you are hearing it from a distance. Next, we have a few songs whose long parts (1-2 even 3 minutes) are pointlesly slow (Of Mist and Midnight Skies, for example). And lastly, we have song length. This is a matter of taste, though, but even I am sometimes uncomfortable with them lasting mostly way over 5 minutes.But, at other times, that's just a reason more to love this album!

Anyway, if you are looking for some great dark, fast music look no further than this masterpice! There is a reason why Cradle of Filth are called "lords of extreme metal" and a good part of that reason lies in this album. Unfortunatley, I don't think they will ever make this kind of a masterpiece again."Cruelty and The Beast" is close, but not enough.

BEST SONGS: "To Eve the Art of Witchcraft," "The Principale of Evil Made Flesh," "Hallowed be Thy Name (Shallow be My Grave)," "The Fores Whispers My Name"

I really like the first stuff by Cof... But 9,2 is just way to much from me. If I have to be as objective as I can I would give the album something around a 8,0 or actually around 7,5 because for the first time I really hate the production... It fucked most of the good parts.

And that's why I disagree with the last part of your review. "Dusk..." and "Cruelty..." kick this album ass [and the other ones as well] every day.
But it's still something wqorth to buy algo with the other two albums I already said. But that's just a matter of tastes.

I really like the first stuff by Cof... But 9,2 is just way to much from me. If I have to be as objective as I can I would give the album something around a 8,0 or actually around 7,5 because for the first time I really hate the production... It fucked most of the good parts.

Aye, totally agree with production comment. They did, however, re-record 3 tracks on Bitter Suiles The Succubi". Man, that kicks ass!
9.2 is, if you ask me, even to small grade, but I had to bring it down because of the production. IMO, it deserves a pure 10.

Probably... I just don't use to read comments in youtube by fan-boys saying that Dani is the ultime shit.
____

But hey, the album is good... And the profuction is actually good BUT like you wrote... It sounds like I'm hearing the music from my neighbour's house. It could have been 10 times better if it was louder.

If I was to give it my own rate... It would be something like:
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 9
Originality: 10
Production: 6
/4 gives around 8,2 and that would be my opinion of course.

Without feeling? There is only one word that comes to my mind when I read this, and it mildly defies the deffinition of a "word". And it's "ungh"...

Oh... I'm really sorry that I disagree with you, are you ok with that?

But what can I do? Last time I checked I had the right to my own opinion.
For me the production sucks, and don't go with the classic "it has to be raw, it's black" because I DO enjoy raw production but this one was done bad imo, the sound is like if my friend is playing the cd in the next room so I have to scream to him to turn the volume up... The vocals aren't even half as good as they were in the next album. Yeah, those high-pitched screams are there and those do sound amazing. But the more "normal" vocals that he did in this album were just meh, like he tried to much.

People are "ungh" when they say that something is bad without saying why, but I have a clear thought about why I think this album is just worth a 7 [and that's not even a bad score...]

This is a great album, true the production sucks but I´ve heard worse. It´s a classic for me with powerfull songs and beautiful instrumentals. "Summer Dying Fast" is one of my favorite CoF songs.
I had hear "Dusk" and "VEmpire" before this one, and I wasn´t disappointed at all.

I agree with all of you, production sucks, and i also think that the album lacks of soul, i mean it is well writen and the music is well composed but you sit down and listen to it and you feel something is missing. In my humble opinion i would give this album a 7.5, Summer Dying Fast is a great song

You mentioned "Hallowed Be Thy Name (Shallow Be Thy Grave)" as one of the best songs on the album, but it's not on Principle... at least not my version. I know that track is on the second disc of the "Cruelty and the Beast" special edition as well as "Lovecraft and Witchhearts." Just thought I'd mention it.

You mentioned "Hallowed Be Thy Name (Shallow Be Thy Grave)" as one of the best songs on the album, but it's not on Principle... at least not my version. I know that track is on the second disc of the "Cruelty and the Beast" special edition as well as "Lovecraft and Witchhearts." Just thought I'd mention it.

Yes, I wonder how nobody noticed that mistake before.
I got this CD from a friend of mine, who Burned the album from his Hard Drive. Apparently, he put that cover on the CD as well, and I didn't pay that much attention to it, as I thought the song actually was on "Principle".
Shit happens.

When i read the comments of "album without soul" just makes me laugh! The best thing of this album is exactly the soul of it! You guys probably didn't saw cof "born" as i did, if you did no one would ever say that "heresy"

I might have been harsh with the soul part... but this is still 7-ish stuff at most for me but of course my opinion is shit because I'm young or something instead of just saying "I disagree". My main problem is still the production... so damn quiet guitars. I really dig the drums though.